Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon 3DS Hands on Preview

For me, Luigi’s Mansion was one of those must own titles when it was released on Gamecube in 2002. Considering the lack of a true Mario title when the console launched, Luigi’s Mansion, along with Rogue Squadron 2, was my first experience of gaminng on Nintendo’s new all powerful purple cube. And what a great game it was – great gameplay, humour, amazing visuals – it was like nothing I’d played before and kept me very satisfied during Mario’s absence. I soon got to the end of the game though and haven’t played on it since, although I have often been tempted to load it into my Wii and have a another go at ghost hunting many times.

Fast forward to E3 2011 and that great presentation of forthcoming 3DS titles from Nintendo. Mario Kart, Kid Icarus and then look who it is! With a genuine sense of surprise and wonder I was very pleased to see the reveal of Luigi’s Mansion 2 – instantly thinking back to the original and remembering how much I enjoyed it. The promise of multiple mansions to explore and all new puzzles on my new favourite handheld meant another must have title was coming to 3DS.

At an IGN event last year I had my first go on Luigi’s Mansion 2 and at that time I was very impressed. The controls felt great, the visuals impressive, the game instantly went on my must buy list. But after that it all went a bit quite on the Luigi front. With no release date confirmed and no further news I was hoping for more details soon. Then, with confirmation of games subtitle ‘Dark Moon’ at this years E3, the game was back on my radar.

Hands on play test
On Saturday at Nintendo’s Community event in London I was lucky enough to have the chance to play the E3 2012 demo, along with other NIntendo fans. The demo I played had three mansions to choose from and I played two of them; a snowy one and one that I assume is the first area from the full game as I ventured out on my mission with only a torch and no sign of the Poltergust 5000.

After a screen showing a diagram of the 3DS control system for the game I was shown a cut scene with Professor E. Gadd and then dropped straight into the game. Luigi materialises from a camera outside the mansion and I’m told to head to the garage. Instantly I was once again very impressed with the graphics, particularly the lighting effects as I flicked the torch on and off. As lightning flashed I directed to Luigi to the front door, only to find I couldn’t open it without a key. Obviously it wouldn’t be that easy!

Pressing X at the garage window caused Luigi to pull himself up against the glass and the screen changed to a first person view, giving me he ability to look around by moving the 3DS about. This is a nice feature, but one that of course messes with the 3D sweet spot as in other games that utilise the gyro controls. In the garage there were a couple of ghosts in a car, flying about and causing trouble. Not clear what to do I headed back to the front door of the mansion to be surprised by a mouse running out from a hole with a key. After a quick chase I grabbed the key and opened the door.

The puzzles begin
The challenge here was to find more keys to be able to progress though the mansion into other rooms off of a main corridor. And this is where the focus on puzzles in this game starts to become clear; with each mansion setting seemingly broken down into a list of puzzles to complete. After retrieving the poltergust 5000 from inside the car in the garage the action started too, giving me the ability to hoover up coins and rugs, spin chandeliers, and pull coats off of hooks. Pressing B causes Luigi to look down for hoovering off of the ground and pressing X makes him look up to suck up coins and ghosts that are above you – both nice features.

The next stage was to get the strobe gadget for attaching to the poltergust 5000. I found this in a chandelier, which I spun by blowing rather than sucking, causing it to lower to the ground. With the strobe tool I then took on my first couple of ghosts; the process of which is to charge the strobe by holding A then releasing at the right time to shock the ghost so he pauses for me to proceed with vacuuming it up. The control method for this whole process works well, considering there is no second analogue stick.

Shortly after clearing the room of ghosts I was challenged to a ghost in the bathroom, sucking up the shower curtain and moving between rooms via a secret switch activated by sitting Luigi on the toilet. Other activities included sucking and then blowing snow balls and lighting a bbq to melt the snow and reveal a gold bar outside the snow themed mansion.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 Dark Moon looks like it’s going to be a fantastic game when it’s finally released next year (as was recently confirmed). I’m disappointed that the release has been delayed further, but have high hopes for what is sure to be a primary title for Nintendo, attracting fans of the original and new ones alike. Playing the demo has cemented it’s place at the top of my wish list for 3DS.

Are you looking forward to this game? If you have any questions about the demo I played feel free to ask in the comments section below.